Laughing on the Other Side
by cdunmire6972
Summary: Just a few days before Christmas, Bruce Wayne goes insane due to too much toxic gas. After he kidnaps Harley Quinn, he tells the Joker to take the top 8 super-villains down before April 1st, or Harley dies. Will the Joker be able to follow through? Does Batman regain his sanity? There's only one way to find out.
1. Chapter 1

**December 23, 1990** – It's almost midnight, almost Christmas Eve, and Bruce Wayne sits in front of his fire at Wayne Manor alone. It's been almost a year since Bruce has had the company of a woman or a close friendship. In Bruce's left hand is a half filled glass of red wine, in the other is the mask he dons as the World's Greatest Detective, the Dark Knight, Batman. Bruce's first sidekick, Dick Grayson, hasn't been seen since he left Gotham under the identity of Nightwing, and Tim Drake, the third Robin, has been off with the Teen Titans for some time now. Bruce has become increasingly depressed over the years, ever since Jason Todd's death as Robin and the permanent crippling of Barbara Gordon. Bruce almost fears having a sidekick anymore, and therefore feels as though he must perform twice as much so nobody comes forward to try and take place by his side to fight crime.

Bruce takes another sip of his wine, his head spinning. He decides it's time to take a nap, hoping the criminals of Gotham do not take advantage of the coming holiday. As he slides into bed alone once more, his thoughts wander to the women he hasn't seen in over a year. He still has dreams about the lovely Talia al Ghul, whom he hasn't seen since his last run in with her father, Ra's. He still has a few clippings about himself as both Bruce Wayne and Batman that were written by Vicki Vale, who left him after she couldn't handle the double identity Bruce lived under. He pulls out an article about Batman stopping a runaway train after Catwoman disabled the brakes after she robbed the people on board. Catwoman, better known as Selina Kyle in Bruce's mind, is the woman he thought he would be with for his life when he could give up the pursuit of Batman, but realized long ago that his dream would probably never happen. Bruce has accepted his fate as Batman, as the protector of the city of Gotham. Bruce thought again of the days ahead, hoping this Christmas to be a pleasant one filled with a dinner Bruce Wayne can attend the entire way through.

**December 24, 1990** – Bruce woke up to the intruder alert blaring. His initial thought was of Dick Grayson sneaking out, but remembered it's just him and Alfred. He leaps out of bed, wondering where the break-in took place. He quickly puts in his headset device and contacts Alfred, but there is no response. _Where could he be?___Bruce wonders to himself as he makes his way into the main hall upstairs. When he makes it to the staircase, he looks at the bottom and sees something that frightens him to his very core. It's Jason Todd.

"It can't be…" whispered Bruce as he fell to his knees in disbelief. He buried Jason over two years ago, and still visits his tomb to be reminded just what the Joker is capable of. He looks back to the figure on the steps and wonders if it really Jason. Bruce gets up to his feet and walks down the steps, gripping the railing tightly to make sure he isn't dreaming. When Bruce finally makes it to the ghost of his past, he reaches out for Jason's face to make sure he's real and not just an illusion, and just as he touches his face, Jason cocks back his arm and hits Bruce over the head with enough force to knock him unconscious. Jason's mouth curls into the slightest of smirks, and he grabs Bruce's arms to drag him to the chair by the fireplace.

Jason sets Bruce into the armchair and goes about setting gas bombs throughout the Manor. The bombs don't look like anything Batman would use, but instead look like small clown heads. After Jason sets them all, he walks out of Wayne Manor, and as he reaches the end of the driveway, he hits a detonator in his pocket, setting off the gas. A tremor goes through Jason's body as he walks away into the darkness.

Back inside Wayne Manor, the toxic gas has spread throughout the halls and rooms, and as Bruce sits unconscious in his chair, Alfred lies unconscious in the Batcave, untouched by the gas. Two hours later, Alfred comes to, and sees on the computer monitor the Manor filled with gas. Alfred immediately hits the vent button, clearing the house of gas. After five minutes, the air in the house is safe enough to enter, and Alfred hurries to Bruce's aid.

Alfred finds Bruce groaning in front of the fire, his skin pale, and Alfred gets him up to his feet. "Master Wayne, are you alright?" Alfred asks, concerned greatly for one of the few people left in his life.

Bruce is able to let out a single phrase, "Jason…" before he falls unconscious once more. Alfred carries Bruce to the couch nearest him, and laying him down as gently as possible. He heads for the phone, punching in the number he has had memorized for years. Two rings later, the voice of Lucius Fox came through the speaker, "What seems to be the problem at this time of night, Alfred?" he asks. "There can I assume only be one reason for this lovely chatter?"

"It's Bruce, Lucius. He has been poisoned by some toxic gas, and I can only assume it was the Joker. He is already pale, and I fear the worst," Alfred replied quickly.

A sigh escaped the phone, and Lucius replied, "Get a blood sample and get it sent to me straightaway. I will get it analyzed and attempt to find an antidote. Until then, you need to keep Bruce under watch and let me know of any changes in his behavior."

"I will, Lucius. Thank you," Alfred replied. He hung the phone up and set it back on the table beside the couch. He hurried around to get a tube and syringe to extract Bruce's blood with. He also heads into the kitchen to make Bruce a sandwich and a large glass of water. Just as Alfred left the kitchen, he heard footsteps. In high hopes that Bruce felt well enough to walk around, Alfred hurried towards the room. Once he gets into the room, he notices that Bruce isn't there, and wonders where he could have gone. He decided to yell out, "Master Wayne?" in hopes that he would respond, not knowing of the problems he and all of Gotham would face.

Bruce Wayne was in the Batcave, donning his suit so that he may take the name of Batman once again. This time he has plans to use his name for selfish needs, a need that has recently been lit in his stomach like a fire, and he knows exactly how he wants to take care of this fire. As Batman gets inside of his Batmobile, the Jokers jolts awake 27 miles away.


	2. Chapter 2

**December 24, 1990** – The Joker looks to the clock beside his bed to see what time it is: 4:38AM. With a groan, he gets out of bed to get a drink. He looks around his room, filled with a Queen bed, a nightstand, and a single table in the corner piled with TNT and C4 that has 'Museum' written on it, with his thoughts drifting to how well his plan has been laid out this evening. His gaze drifts back to Harley, dressed in a black and red bra and matching panties, sleeping straight through the night as usual.

The Joker still remembers when Harley was his psychiatrist at Arkham. She was so easy to manipulate, and still is. Sometimes he feels bad for her when he beats her, but then he remembers that she did try to kill him a couple times, and he still gets pains in his shoulder from when she shot him. He still gets angry about it, and can't wait to kill Poison Ivy one day after putting all of those thoughts in Harley's head. Even though he wants to kill her, the Joker knows that he has nobody else. All of his henchmen were nothing more than pawns to him, useless pawns to carry out his bidding.

While the Joker pours himself a large glass of Brandy, he wonders how well the gas bombs were set in Wayne Manor by his henchmen. He had only given them enough to gas the first floor well enough to take the Bat to Arkham Asylum, where the Joker would be able to get back into with no problem. With a small laugh, he takes the Brandy in one go, barely feeling its effects. Whenever he thinks back, the Joker can just barely remember a time when things like alcohol, the touch a woman, or a genuine smile gave him pleasure. As always, he goes and grabs his favorite gun, a .44 Magnum Taurus Raging Bull, with a gloved hand and puts it to his temple while thinking. He can't wait to give the Bat his Christmas gift, but hopefully it won't be too easy.

The Joker has known since his recent trip to the UN that Bruce Wayne was Batman. Ever since their eyes locked, he saw the intensity of the Bat in there and knew instantly who it was. After their fight and his falling into the sea, he knew he had plenty of time to plan his next attack on the Bat. He wanted it to be easy though, on his home court in Arkham. After some deliberating though, he realizes that there is nothing he can do about it now. He returns to his bed with Harley, another mark of his numbness, and looks back at the clock: 4:56AM. He closes his eyes and waits for the darkness to absorb him into his nightmares once more.

Seven minutes later though, a loud thumping sound is heard, waking the Joker again. Wondering what the hell could be going on this time, he gets up to look out of his bedroom door into the large warehouse below him. He yells for his men, but nobody responds. He grabs his gun off the table, muttering to himself, "Have to do it all myself…don't even know why I bother hiring anybody."

The Joker steps out onto the catwalk, yelling out in the darkness, "Is that you, Bats? I hope you enjoyed my gift. Ha! Ha! Ha!"

He releases a shot from his gun into a dark corner, the sound echoing throughout the warehouse. He yells, "Where are you, Bats? You know I've missed you. I finally set up my surprise for you, and this is how you're going to repay me? Not cool, Bats."

Meanwhile underneath the Joker, Batman gets ready to pounce with a Batarang. He sets explosive gel on the legs holding up the catwalk, and as he stalks away into the corner the Joker just shot into, he sets off the detonator. He hears the Joker let out a yell, and just as the crumpled heap that was the catwalk falls, Batman lets loose his Batarang, slicing open the Jokers left cheek and catching part of his ear, letting another yell escape the Joker's lips, followed by another laugh. "Ha! Bats, you are really trying to outdo yourself, aren't you? Not even a hello as you come in, attacking my men and destroying my warehouse? And you cut up my favorite face!" the Joker yelled, as he rubbed his bleeding face with his gun, letting the blood cover his gun and gloved hand.

Batman came rushing out of the corner, exciting the Joker enough to let out another maniacal laugh just before Batman bulrushes him into the wall. He takes the side of the Joker's head and smashes it against the wall repeatedly, almost in time to the laughter of the Joker. After a few seconds of repeated head bashing, Batman hears from above the voice that he has hoped has been here. "You leave Mr. J alone, Batman!" Harley screamed at him from through the open door.

She ran back into the room, grabbing her gun jumping down to land on Batman, hoping to get a good shot off as she fell. Sadly Batman and the Joker were too interlocked for her to be able to safely get a shot off. She landed on Batman with a hard thump, and since she was still only in her panties, Batman was able to get a good grip on her and throw her across the warehouse right by the Batmobile, and after one more good connection of the Joker's head and the wall, Batman drops him, walks over to Harley, ties her up, and puts her in the Batmobile. Before he gets in the vehicle himself, Batman throws another Batarang, this one embedding itself into the wall right beside the Joker's head, and as the Batmobile rips out, the vehicle lets out a large plume of smoke, causing the Joker to hack and wheeze until the smoke cleared.

After a groan and a little head rub, the Joker got up off of his feet and looked around. After looking at the remains of his catwalk and his unreachable bedroom door, he looks at the Batarang stuck in the wall. Batman colored the Batarang on the way here, dressed in the same makeup as the Joker's face on the front, with a set of black eyes and 'Ha! Ha! Ha!' written across the entire surface. On the back, however, was a message: _I know you aren't one to care for anyone, Joker, but I know Harley is different. If you want her, you have to kill or capture the eight most difficult supervillains before the stroke of Midnight on April First. If not, I will drop Harley from the top of Wayne Tower. HA! HA! HA!_

The Joker didn't know what to do. He has never been faced with this problem, and as he searched around for a ladder tall enough to reach his bedroom door, he wondered whether or not the Bat was actually crazy, or was finally fed up with the troubles over the years, but this is definitely not the Bat in his right mind. The Joker finally found a ladder, and carried to the area where he hopes it will hold and not fall over. After another large glass of Brandy, the Joker turns on the light in the bathroom and takes a long needed piss, checks his cuts, noticing that they will make nice scars when they set. After one last glance, and a long smile, he turned out the light and headed back to bed, his heart a little lighter sleeping alone. His last thought before he fell asleep was which villains the Bat would want taken down, with Two-Face at the top of his list. He looks at the clock one last time as he shut his eyes: 5:18AM.


End file.
